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<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">GLEP:</th><td class="field-body">29</td>
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<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Title:</th><td class="field-body">USE flag groups</td>
</tr>
<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Version:</th><td class="field-body">1.1</td>
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<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Author:</th><td class="field-body">Ciaran McCreesh &lt;ciaranm&#32;&#97;t&#32;gentoo.org&gt;</td>
</tr>
<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Last-Modified:</th><td class="field-body"><a class="reference" href="http://www.gentoo.org/cgi-bin/viewcvs/xml/htdocs/proj/en/glep/glep-0029.txt?cvsroot=gentoo">2004/08/22 01:59:24</a></td>
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<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Status:</th><td class="field-body">Draft</td>
</tr>
<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Type:</th><td class="field-body">Standards Track</td>
</tr>
<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Content-Type:</th><td class="field-body"><a class="reference" href="glep-0012.html">text/x-rst</a></td>
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<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Created:</th><td class="field-body">19-August-2004</td>
</tr>
<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Post-Date:</th><td class="field-body">21-August-2004</td>
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<hr />
<div class="contents topic" id="contents">
<p class="topic-title first"><a name="contents">Contents</a></p>
<ul class="simple">
<li><a class="reference" href="#abstract" id="id3" name="id3">Abstract</a></li>
<li><a class="reference" href="#motivation" id="id4" name="id4">Motivation</a></li>
<li><a class="reference" href="#specification" id="id5" name="id5">Specification</a><ul>
<li><a class="reference" href="#group-specification" id="id6" name="id6">Group Specification</a></li>
<li><a class="reference" href="#group-descriptions" id="id7" name="id7">Group Descriptions</a></li>
<li><a class="reference" href="#using-groups" id="id8" name="id8">Using Groups</a></li>
<li><a class="reference" href="#additional-issues" id="id9" name="id9">Additional Issues</a></li>
<li><a class="reference" href="#adding-new-groups" id="id10" name="id10">Adding New Groups</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a class="reference" href="#rationale" id="id11" name="id11">Rationale</a></li>
<li><a class="reference" href="#reference-implementation" id="id12" name="id12">Reference Implementation</a></li>
<li><a class="reference" href="#backwards-compatability" id="id13" name="id13">Backwards Compatability</a></li>
<li><a class="reference" href="#references" id="id14" name="id14">References</a></li>
<li><a class="reference" href="#copyright" id="id15" name="id15">Copyright</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
<p>BIG FAT DISCLAIMER: EARLY DRAFT, SEND COMMENTS TO ciaranm. EVERYTHING IN
HERE IS OPEN TO DISCUSSION. THE WRITING STYLE SUCKS. MAY CAUSE CANCER IN
PUPPIES.</p>
<div class="section" id="abstract">
<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id3" name="abstract">Abstract</a></h1>
<p>Currently, USE flags must be selected on a one-by-one basis, making it
time-consuming to set up make.conf appropriately for a machine's role.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="motivation">
<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id4" name="motivation">Motivation</a></h1>
<p>USE flags allow the user to have software built in a manner which is
relevant for their system's role. For example, a desktop user will
probably want to enable optional X support in packages, whereas a server
user will not. However, with several hundred USE flags available, it can
be time consuming to set up make.conf appropriately.</p>
<p>This GLEP proposes a mechanism for grouping USE flags to simplify
selection.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="specification">
<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id5" name="specification">Specification</a></h1>
<div class="section" id="group-specification">
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id6" name="group-specification">Group Specification</a></h2>
<p>A group shall consist of one or more USE flags. These groups are defined
in <tt class="literal"><span class="pre">${PORTDIR}/profiles/use.groups</span></tt>. It is proposed that uppercase names
only are used for groups to keep them visually distinct from normal USE
flags. The file format is similar to the existing use.* files:</p>
<pre class="literal-block">
SOME_GROUP flag1 flag2 flag3
OTHER_GROUP flag2 flag4
</pre>
<p>Groups may recursively include other groups. For consistency with GLEP 23
[1], it is proposed that group names are prefixed with an 'at' symbol (&#64;):</p>
<pre class="literal-block">
GROUP1 flag1
GROUP2 flag2 flag3 &#64;GROUP1
GROUP3 flag4
GROUP4 &#64;GROUP2 &#64;GROUP3 flag5
</pre>
<p>Users may create their own groups using <tt class="literal"><span class="pre">/etc/portage/use.groups</span></tt>. This
file overrides the profile settings in the case of duplicates.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="group-descriptions">
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id7" name="group-descriptions">Group Descriptions</a></h2>
<p>Groups shall have a textual description associated with them in the same
way as USE flags. The file <tt class="literal"><span class="pre">${PORTDIR}/profiles/use.groups.desc</span></tt>
contains these:</p>
<pre class="literal-block">
DESKTOP Flags which are appropriate for most desktop systems
RECOMMENDED Flags which should be enabled on almost all systems
</pre>
</div>
<div class="section" id="using-groups">
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id8" name="using-groups">Using Groups</a></h2>
<p>Groups may be used in <tt class="literal"><span class="pre">/etc/make.conf</span></tt>, <tt class="literal"><span class="pre">/etc/portage/package.use</span></tt> and
other places where USE flags are normally specified. Again, the &#64; symbol
is used. For example, a <tt class="literal"><span class="pre">make.conf</span></tt> for a desktop system might resemble:</p>
<pre class="literal-block">
USE=&quot;&#64;DESKTOP &#64;KDE perl alsa dvd&quot;
</pre>
</div>
<div class="section" id="additional-issues">
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id9" name="additional-issues">Additional Issues</a></h2>
<p>Groups should <em>not</em> generally contain negative USE flags, as this would
lead to confusion. Groups are intended to specify what will be enabled for
a given role, not what will be turned off. For example, if the &#64;KDE group
disabled Gnome-related USE flags, and a user used <tt class="literal"><span class="pre">USE=&quot;&#64;GNOME</span> <span class="pre">&#64;KDE&quot;</span></tt> to
specify that they wanted both Gnome <em>and</em> KDE to be used where applicable,
chaos would ensue. However, for the sake of consistency, -flags should be
supported even if their use is strongly discouraged.</p>
<p>It is proposed that <tt class="literal"><span class="pre">-&#64;GROUP</span></tt> syntax should <em>not</em> be supported. Instead,
users wishing to turn most things off could use the <tt class="literal"><span class="pre">-*</span></tt> USE syntax
along with a group (for example, &#64;RECOMMENDED) which turned on flags (for
example, pam and readline) which should usually be used.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="adding-new-groups">
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id10" name="adding-new-groups">Adding New Groups</a></h2>
<p>The actual groups to be created is beyond the scope of this GLEP, and any
group names contained herein should be treated as examples only. Creation
of new groups and changing a group's flags should be discussed on the
gentoo-dev mailing list as per existing policy for new global USE flags.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="section" id="rationale">
<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id11" name="rationale">Rationale</a></h1>
<p>USE groups will simplify selecting an appropriate set of USE flags for a
system.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="reference-implementation">
<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id12" name="reference-implementation">Reference Implementation</a></h1>
<p>TODO</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="backwards-compatability">
<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id13" name="backwards-compatability">Backwards Compatability</a></h1>
<p>The user will not need to make any changes to keep their current setup.
Users who are not running a portage version which supports groups can
carry on using current syntax with no side-effects.</p>
<p>Some tools which work with make.conf and / or USE flags (for example,
<tt class="literal"><span class="pre">ufed</span></tt>) will need to be updated to understand the new group syntax.</p>
<p>There is currently a dymanic list of USE flags available on the Gentoo
website [2]. For consistency, a similar list will be needed for USE
groups.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="references">
<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id14" name="references">References</a></h1>
<table class="footnote" frame="void" id="id1" rules="none">
<colgroup><col class="label" /><col /></colgroup>
<tbody valign="top">
<tr><td class="label"><a name="id1">[1]</a></td><td>GLEP 23: Portage handling of ACCEPT_LICENSE
(<a class="reference" href="http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/glep/glep-0023.html">http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/glep/glep-0023.html</a>)</td></tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<table class="footnote" frame="void" id="id2" rules="none">
<colgroup><col class="label" /><col /></colgroup>
<tbody valign="top">
<tr><td class="label"><a name="id2">[2]</a></td><td><a class="reference" href="http://www.gentoo.org/dyn/use-index.xml">http://www.gentoo.org/dyn/use-index.xml</a></td></tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
<div class="section" id="copyright">
<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id15" name="copyright">Copyright</a></h1>
<p>This document has been placed in the public domain.</p>
<blockquote>
vim: set tw=74 :</blockquote>
</div>
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24	[<b><a href="http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/glep">GLEP Index</a></b>]
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27	<div class="document">
28	<table class="rfc2822 field-list" frame="void" rules="none">
29	<col class="field-name" />
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31	<tbody valign="top">
32	<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">GLEP:</th><td class="field-body">29</td>
33	</tr>
34	<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Title:</th><td class="field-body">USE flag groups</td>
35	</tr>
36	<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Version:</th><td class="field-body">1.1</td>
37	</tr>
38	<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Author:</th><td class="field-body">Ciaran McCreesh <ciaranm at gentoo.org></td>
39	</tr>
40	<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Last-Modified:</th><td class="field-body"><a class="reference" href="http://www.gentoo.org/cgi-bin/viewcvs/xml/htdocs/proj/en/glep/glep-0029.txt?cvsroot=gentoo">2004/08/22 01:59:24</a></td>
41	</tr>
42	<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Status:</th><td class="field-body">Draft</td>
43	</tr>
44	<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Type:</th><td class="field-body">Standards Track</td>
45	</tr>
46	<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Content-Type:</th><td class="field-body"><a class="reference" href="glep-0012.html">text/x-rst</a></td>
47	</tr>
48	<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Created:</th><td class="field-body">19-August-2004</td>
49	</tr>
50	<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Post-Date:</th><td class="field-body">21-August-2004</td>
51	</tr>
52	</tbody>
53	</table>
54	<hr />
55	<div class="contents topic" id="contents">
56	<p class="topic-title first"><a name="contents">Contents</a></p>
57	<ul class="simple">
58	<li><a class="reference" href="#abstract" id="id3" name="id3">Abstract</a></li>
59	<li><a class="reference" href="#motivation" id="id4" name="id4">Motivation</a></li>
60	<li><a class="reference" href="#specification" id="id5" name="id5">Specification</a><ul>
61	<li><a class="reference" href="#group-specification" id="id6" name="id6">Group Specification</a></li>
62	<li><a class="reference" href="#group-descriptions" id="id7" name="id7">Group Descriptions</a></li>
63	<li><a class="reference" href="#using-groups" id="id8" name="id8">Using Groups</a></li>
64	<li><a class="reference" href="#additional-issues" id="id9" name="id9">Additional Issues</a></li>
65	<li><a class="reference" href="#adding-new-groups" id="id10" name="id10">Adding New Groups</a></li>
66	</ul>
67	</li>
68	<li><a class="reference" href="#rationale" id="id11" name="id11">Rationale</a></li>
69	<li><a class="reference" href="#reference-implementation" id="id12" name="id12">Reference Implementation</a></li>
70	<li><a class="reference" href="#backwards-compatability" id="id13" name="id13">Backwards Compatability</a></li>
71	<li><a class="reference" href="#references" id="id14" name="id14">References</a></li>
72	<li><a class="reference" href="#copyright" id="id15" name="id15">Copyright</a></li>
73	</ul>
74	</div>
75	<p>BIG FAT DISCLAIMER: EARLY DRAFT, SEND COMMENTS TO ciaranm. EVERYTHING IN
76	HERE IS OPEN TO DISCUSSION. THE WRITING STYLE SUCKS. MAY CAUSE CANCER IN
77	PUPPIES.</p>
78	<div class="section" id="abstract">
79	<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id3" name="abstract">Abstract</a></h1>
80	<p>Currently, USE flags must be selected on a one-by-one basis, making it
81	time-consuming to set up make.conf appropriately for a machine's role.</p>
82	</div>
83	<div class="section" id="motivation">
84	<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id4" name="motivation">Motivation</a></h1>
85	<p>USE flags allow the user to have software built in a manner which is
86	relevant for their system's role. For example, a desktop user will
87	probably want to enable optional X support in packages, whereas a server
88	user will not. However, with several hundred USE flags available, it can
89	be time consuming to set up make.conf appropriately.</p>
90	<p>This GLEP proposes a mechanism for grouping USE flags to simplify
91	selection.</p>
92	</div>
93	<div class="section" id="specification">
94	<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id5" name="specification">Specification</a></h1>
95	<div class="section" id="group-specification">
96	<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id6" name="group-specification">Group Specification</a></h2>
97	<p>A group shall consist of one or more USE flags. These groups are defined
98	in <tt class="literal"><span class="pre">${PORTDIR}/profiles/use.groups</span></tt>. It is proposed that uppercase names
99	only are used for groups to keep them visually distinct from normal USE
100	flags. The file format is similar to the existing use.* files:</p>
101	<pre class="literal-block">
102	SOME_GROUP flag1 flag2 flag3
103	OTHER_GROUP flag2 flag4
104	</pre>
105	<p>Groups may recursively include other groups. For consistency with GLEP 23
106	[1], it is proposed that group names are prefixed with an 'at' symbol (@):</p>
107	<pre class="literal-block">
108	GROUP1 flag1
109	GROUP2 flag2 flag3 @GROUP1
110	GROUP3 flag4
111	GROUP4 @GROUP2 @GROUP3 flag5
112	</pre>
113	<p>Users may create their own groups using <tt class="literal"><span class="pre">/etc/portage/use.groups</span></tt>. This
114	file overrides the profile settings in the case of duplicates.</p>
115	</div>
116	<div class="section" id="group-descriptions">
117	<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id7" name="group-descriptions">Group Descriptions</a></h2>
118	<p>Groups shall have a textual description associated with them in the same
119	way as USE flags. The file <tt class="literal"><span class="pre">${PORTDIR}/profiles/use.groups.desc</span></tt>
120	contains these:</p>
121	<pre class="literal-block">
122	DESKTOP Flags which are appropriate for most desktop systems
123	RECOMMENDED Flags which should be enabled on almost all systems
124	</pre>
125	</div>
126	<div class="section" id="using-groups">
127	<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id8" name="using-groups">Using Groups</a></h2>
128	<p>Groups may be used in <tt class="literal"><span class="pre">/etc/make.conf</span></tt>, <tt class="literal"><span class="pre">/etc/portage/package.use</span></tt> and
129	other places where USE flags are normally specified. Again, the @ symbol
130	is used. For example, a <tt class="literal"><span class="pre">make.conf</span></tt> for a desktop system might resemble:</p>
131	<pre class="literal-block">
132	USE="@DESKTOP @KDE perl alsa dvd"
133	</pre>
134	</div>
135	<div class="section" id="additional-issues">
136	<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id9" name="additional-issues">Additional Issues</a></h2>
137	<p>Groups should <em>not</em> generally contain negative USE flags, as this would
138	lead to confusion. Groups are intended to specify what will be enabled for
139	a given role, not what will be turned off. For example, if the @KDE group
140	disabled Gnome-related USE flags, and a user used <tt class="literal"><span class="pre">USE="@GNOME</span> <span class="pre">@KDE"</span></tt> to
141	specify that they wanted both Gnome <em>and</em> KDE to be used where applicable,
142	chaos would ensue. However, for the sake of consistency, -flags should be
143	supported even if their use is strongly discouraged.</p>
144	<p>It is proposed that <tt class="literal"><span class="pre">-@GROUP</span></tt> syntax should <em>not</em> be supported. Instead,
145	users wishing to turn most things off could use the <tt class="literal"><span class="pre">-*</span></tt> USE syntax
146	along with a group (for example, @RECOMMENDED) which turned on flags (for
147	example, pam and readline) which should usually be used.</p>
148	</div>
149	<div class="section" id="adding-new-groups">
150	<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id10" name="adding-new-groups">Adding New Groups</a></h2>
151	<p>The actual groups to be created is beyond the scope of this GLEP, and any
152	group names contained herein should be treated as examples only. Creation
153	of new groups and changing a group's flags should be discussed on the
154	gentoo-dev mailing list as per existing policy for new global USE flags.</p>
155	</div>
156	</div>
157	<div class="section" id="rationale">
158	<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id11" name="rationale">Rationale</a></h1>
159	<p>USE groups will simplify selecting an appropriate set of USE flags for a
160	system.</p>
161	</div>
162	<div class="section" id="reference-implementation">
163	<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id12" name="reference-implementation">Reference Implementation</a></h1>
164	<p>TODO</p>
165	</div>
166	<div class="section" id="backwards-compatability">
167	<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id13" name="backwards-compatability">Backwards Compatability</a></h1>
168	<p>The user will not need to make any changes to keep their current setup.
169	Users who are not running a portage version which supports groups can
170	carry on using current syntax with no side-effects.</p>
171	<p>Some tools which work with make.conf and / or USE flags (for example,
172	<tt class="literal"><span class="pre">ufed</span></tt>) will need to be updated to understand the new group syntax.</p>
173	<p>There is currently a dymanic list of USE flags available on the Gentoo
174	website [2]. For consistency, a similar list will be needed for USE
175	groups.</p>
176	</div>
177	<div class="section" id="references">
178	<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id14" name="references">References</a></h1>
179	<table class="footnote" frame="void" id="id1" rules="none">
180	<colgroup><col class="label" /><col /></colgroup>
181	<tbody valign="top">
182	<tr><td class="label"><a name="id1">[1]</a></td><td>GLEP 23: Portage handling of ACCEPT_LICENSE
183	(<a class="reference" href="http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/glep/glep-0023.html">http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/glep/glep-0023.html</a>)</td></tr>
184	</tbody>
185	</table>
186	<table class="footnote" frame="void" id="id2" rules="none">
187	<colgroup><col class="label" /><col /></colgroup>
188	<tbody valign="top">
189	<tr><td class="label"><a name="id2">[2]</a></td><td><a class="reference" href="http://www.gentoo.org/dyn/use-index.xml">http://www.gentoo.org/dyn/use-index.xml</a></td></tr>
190	</tbody>
191	</table>
192	</div>
193	<div class="section" id="copyright">
194	<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id15" name="copyright">Copyright</a></h1>
195	<p>This document has been placed in the public domain.</p>
196	<blockquote>
197	vim: set tw=74 :</blockquote>
198	</div>
199	</div>
200
201	<hr class="footer" />
202	<div class="footer">
203	<a class="reference" href="glep-0029.txt">View document source</a>.
204	Generated on: 2004-08-22 01:47 UTC.
205	Generated by <a class="reference" href="http://docutils.sourceforge.net/">Docutils</a> from <a class="reference" href="http://docutils.sourceforge.net/rst.html">reStructuredText</a> source.
206	</div>
207	</body>
208	</html>